{"id":621661,"date":"2026-09-11T18:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621661\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T18:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:16:15","slug":"kylian-mbappe-dictator-meme-shows-lack-of-awareness-says-real-madrid-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621661\/","title":{"rendered":"Kylian Mbappe: Dictator meme shows ‘lack of awareness’, says Real Madrid forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kylian Mbappe has criticised a viral meme which superimposes his face on the body of a dictator, saying it shows “a lack of political and human awareness”.<\/p>\n

The Real Madrid and France forward, 27, said he understood there was a “funny side” to the AI-generated meme, but that it downplayed serious issues.<\/p>\n

It is seemingly used by some fans on social media to reflect the way Mbappe dominates matches, while others have suggested it refers to his influence at clubs.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview with France Football, external<\/a>, Mbappe said: “There’s a funny side to it because you can sense that, for some people, it’s good natured.<\/p>\n

“Then there’s a side that’s a bit less funny, because we know the damage people like that have caused throughout history. <\/p>\n

“Being compared to people who murder others, or who have made millions upon millions of people miserable… I don’t think I’ve done that in my life.<\/p>\n

“On one hand, I know it’s done lightheartedly and doesn’t go that far, but it sometimes reveals a lack of political and human awareness among people.”<\/p>\n

Mbappe also referenced the “Mobut” nickname he was called by France team-mate Ousmane Dembele during the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n

That nickname comes from Mobutu Sese Seko,<\/a> the dictator who ruled the Democratic Republic of Congo – formerly Zaire – for three decades.<\/p>\n

“Ousmane, that’s a different thing. He took that from social media. He’s just having a laugh,” Mbappe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kylian Mbappe has criticised a viral meme which superimposes his face on the body of a dictator, saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-621661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}